Category Archives for Airlines.
British Airways is doing you no favors, letting you spend Avios at a low value to pay the taxes and fees they impose on award tickets. This isn’t a case of lowering fees, it’s just offering the option to spend points as cash (poorly) to cover the fees. And they’re focused on markets where those fees are barely an issue to begin with.
Many customers think that American is wrong, watching entertainment on their phones isn’t the same as a seat back screen if they even know they have to download the American Airlines app prior to takeoff in order to do so. Planes with seat back video look newer and fresher, while even brand new aircraft without screens look old and cheap — there’s a reverse halo effect that can drag down premium revenue too.
However I’ve finally been convinced that American was right. Passengers don’t deserve seat back entertainment. And all it took was one short video going viral on twitter to show me that was the case.
You might be wondering “how can making customers value MileagePlus less generate more frequent flyer revenue for United?” And the answer seems to be an accounting fiction.
Ultimately the changes to cancelling and refunding awards make the program easier to deal with. I’m waiting with baited breath to see what the program’s award chart and routing rules will look like when the new program is announced.
Lufthansa’s CEO is attacking low cost carriers easyJet and Ryanair, calling the cheapest flights they offer “economically, ecologically, and politically irresponsible.”
Airlines prefer to be protected from competition by government regulation and that inures to the detriment of the flying public.
Back in May Via Air effectively threw in the towel. First they didn’t show up when they were supposed to start air service at an airport. They stopped paying the airports they were serving. They started cancelling flights. Customers were showing up at the airport but there weren’t staff. Comments left on this blog suggest they may not have been paying their employees.
The U.S. airline industry was born in subsidy from the post office and American Airlines received a federal loan to pay for its first big aircraft order. The U.S. airline industry has more government involvement than most countries — the U.S. model where airports are owned and run by government agencies, and air traffic control is managed by the government is unusual.
Big U.S. airlines like Delta, American, and United have all benefited from major government subsidies, like moving pension obligations off their books and onto the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation in bankruptcy while retaining tax loss carry forwards so that they wouldn’t have to pay taxes once they started earning profits.
Delta is moving to offer free inflight internet, matching JetBlue, and American has been explicit that an industry move in this direction could force them to do the same.
One of my most frequent and best uses of American AAdvantage miles over the past 7 years has been booking first class awards on Etihad. I’ve used them to fly to the Maldives four times, to India, to the Gulf region and from the Mideast to Australia to name just a few.
And they offer an excellent hard product in first class – on their Airbus A380 the ‘First Apartment’ with an on board shower.
American already eliminated their rule that basic economy passengers couldn’t bring on a full sized carry on bag. Now they’re making it easier for passengers on basic economy fares to get advance seat assignments – allowing paid seats 7 days prior to travel. And with bigger overhead bins, boarding last isn’t even a big deal anymore either.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
